The Haunted Castle
by alice writes stuff
Summary: One dark, stormy night, Ce'Nedra decides to go on a ghost hunt in Riva. What she finds is much less sinister than she'd expected...


**A.N- This is a little story I wrote for Halloween. I came up with the idea at school, and decided to share it here. Hope you guys enjoy it! Don't forget to leave a review!**

Ce'Nedra had always been afraid of ghosts. Ever since she was little, she'd hated listening to stories of them, and had been suspicious of sudden cold draughts and inexplicable noises. Which was why, on one particularly dark and stormy night, she decided to see if the castle at Riva was haunted or not. The tiny island had only really been her home for a few months now, and she wanted to make sure it was safe.

"Do you think this place might be haunted?" she asked her husband, Garion. He shook his head.

"No, I don't think so." He frowned at her. "Why, do you?"

"I think it couldn't hurt to find out." She replied, feeling a little bit silly now.

"Well, would you mind doing that on your own? I've got work to do." She sighed, nodding reluctantly. She didn't really want to go herself, in case there really were ghosts, but it seemed that she didn't have any other option if she wanted to go now.

"Alright," she agreed, and left the room, taking a lit candle with her.

Ce'Nedra was regretting this already. She could hear the rain pounding down on the roof above her, along with the whistling wind and occasional boom of thunder. Her small candle provided the only light source, all the other lanterns having already been blown out by the wind. She couldn't see very much, just a few shapes in the dark that she knew to be furniture.

She was just going to turn back when the door at the other end of the corridor slammed shut, followed swiftly by the other one. The sudden noise made her jump, but she tried not to let it scare her.

"It's just the wind, it's nothing to worry about," she told herself.

"Yes, that's right," a strange voice whispered from a few feet away. "Just the wind." Ce'Nedra screamed. Backing away against the wall, she tried to calm herself down.

"I'm just imagining it, there's nobody there." She tried desperately to rationalise, even though it felt like there was someone else in the corridor with her. She'd almost gotten her heartbeat back under control when suddenly, without warning, a book flew off a shelf a few feet to her left, thudding loudly against the wall.

"Alright, whoever's doing this, it isn't funny anymore! Show yourself right now!" she shouted into the darkness. To her surprise, someone did actually emerge from the shadows. A very familiar someone with sandy hair.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you that much." She glared up at him.

"I wasn't scared," she protested, even though she was still trembling quite visibly.

"Yes, you were. That's why I stopped, because I thought this had gone far enough."

"Why did you do it in the first place, then, if you knew I'd be scared?"

"I didn't know that! I didn't think you were being serious, talking about the halls of the castle being haunted. I thought it was a joke, so I decided to play along."

"Well, it wasn't a joke, and it wasn't funny. You scared me to death." A loud crack of thunder echoed overhead, and she had to fight the urge to throw herself into his arms. She hated storms almost as much as she hated ghost stories. Instead, though, she stood her ground and continued to glare at him, even though it was making her face hurt a bit now.

"I know that now, and I'm sorry." He smiled at her. "Honestly, I didn't realise you'd be that easy to scare. I thought I was going to have to do way more."

"How much more?" she asked, slightly concerned.

"Lighting all the lanterns, maybe a bit of shadow puppets, possibly a walking suit of armour or two." She stared at him.

"Good thing you didn't do any of that, though. That would've been scary."

"Yeah, it would've been. So, are you alright now? You're not too scared?" She nodded, just as she heard another loud boom of thunder. This time, though, she couldn't help throwing her arms around his neck and holding on tightly. He smiled, patting her curly hair lightly.

As they left the corridor, neither of them noticed the pale figure that floated through the door at the other end…


End file.
